ASEAN leaders to ask Myanmar tough questions

ASEAN leaders to ask Myanmar tough questions

John Ruwitch, Reuters/Beijing

Southeast Asian leaders will be asking tough questions of Myanmar's new prime minister at a regional summit for a glimpse of what will become of his purged predecessor's widely endorsed "roadmap to democracy".

Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said on Thursday he expected a "robust" discussion of the issue following the ouster of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt last month and his replacement by Soe Win.

The purge ousted a prime minister believed to be ready to at least talk to detained democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi, whose detention is a focal point of Western dissatisfaction with the junta.

ASEAN leaders will hold their annual summit in Laos starting next week soon after Khin Nyunt was purged along with many senior members of military intelligence he headed.

Khin Nyunt was accused publicly of corruption, a charge foreign analysts derided, saying the Myanmar military was thoroughly corrupt.

But the purge has left the region wondering what is really going on despite promises from the generals that policy and commitment to the "roadmap" remain unchanged.

"This year, with the focus so intense, the discussion on this might be more robust because the idea must be the rest of ASEAN cannot be left wondering what are we going to do with Myanmar," Ong told Reuters by telephone from Bangkok.

"They will have to take stock of where the situation has evolved since the last meeting," Ong said.

"I suppose if his (Soe Win's) clarification is something which leaves room for any doubts, our ASEAN leaders are ready to assert themselves and ask very hard questions," he added.

At last year's meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali, Khin Nyunt presented the "roadmap" for national reconciliation, which the other ASEAN leaders formally welcomed.

His purge and replacement by Lt. Gen. Soe Win cast further doubts about an end to military rule any time soon.

It also made more remote the possibility of freedom for Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, under house arrest after being in detention in one form or another since May last year.

"Given the way in which the change of prime minister has taken place and the greater speculation on the future of this national reconciliation process, there will be a lot of hard questions by the other ASEAN leaders," Ong said.

Analysts said the purge of Khin Nyunt created a serious challenge to Southeast Asia's policy of constructive engagement -- talking with Myanmar's military rulers to encourage change rather than use sanctions, like the United States and Europe.

It brought to prominence generals believed to be close allies of paramount leader Than Shwe, who is thought to be eager to ignore Suu Kyi.

Her National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was denied power by the army, which has run the country in various guises since 1962.

The NLD is boycotting a national convention designed to produce a new constitution and due to resume work in January.

"We don't go and poke our nose in somebody else's internal matter," Ong said. "But we are saying there is an issue here. Because of the developments in Myanmar, the world is focused on ASEAN and ASEAN has to come up with something credible."

Still, he said the discussion of Myanmar would not take place in formal meetings and would be done sensitively.

"They are all very aware that today it may be Myanmar, tomorrow it may be south Thailand and southern Philippines or what have you," he said.

"So, they are very scrupulous in following the process and doing it in a way which will not rupture the exchange of views."

Calling on Myanmar's military leaders to free all its political prisoners including Suu Kyi, a UN General Assembly committee on Tuesday expressed grave concern over human rights in the southeast Asian nation.

Reuters reported that the assembly's Social Committee, which considers human rights and humanitarian issues, adopted a draft resolution by consensus in a session marred by contentious exchanges between diplomats from Myanmar and the United States, a co-sponsor of the resolution.

U.S. diplomat Joan Plaisted decried the "deplorable human rights situation" there and called for the release of Suu Kyi and 1,000 other political prisoners and the full and free participation of the National League and representatives of ethnic minorities.

"Absent the junta's implementation of real political change, we urge the international community to consider steps to further strengthen sanctions," she said.